Speech Components:

I belong to the Down East speech category, particularly southwestern Maine. People generally think of Mainers as having this awful speech pattern full of "ayuh" and "upta camp, bub!" Although this dialect exists all around me, I usually don't end my words with an "uh" sound. Fact: People from Maine cannot say words containing "oom." I don't say "boom" because it comes out weird. My roommate tells me that instead of "room," I say "rum," and I let out an "ayuh" every once in a while. This very moment, I was just picked on for saying "pupcorn."

Like a typical New Englander, I say very little about most things. It's not that we don't know what we're talking about, we just assume that by telling someone the key words, they'll get the rest.

Another thing: the word "wicked." If y'aint a Down Easta, don't botha tryin' t'use it deah, you'll sound wicked retahded. You need the right stresses. When used properly, "wicked" replaces the adverb "really"-- BUT, not in all cases. The most common case of "wicked" is used when describing really cold weather. "Holy smokes, it's wicked cold out, huh?" The other day, I heard a New Yorker declare that "wicked" was her new word and she completely butchered it. Furthermore, "She's wicked nice" is acceptable, whereas "She's wicked rude" is not.

Also, in Maine it's completely normal to just say "yep" and be done with your conversation. I can't tell you how many times at this school I've been given a look for only answering with one word. It's also hard for me to write long papers because my writing, like my speech, is so concise.

Here is a typical day:

The setting: the local minimart, in line, buying a hot cuppa joe and a whoopie pie.

The topic: the latest vehicle accident, how many points were on the last deer you killed, the outrageous price on the coffee (usually $1 for a large), or what kind of machinery you're trying to fix and sell.

The purpose: to catch up on the town's gossip. Everyone knows everything about everyone.

The key: Friendly chit-chat. What I love about home is that nobody is out to get each other. It's an extremely generous community, so there's hardly any conning, just friends catching up with each other. Very sincere.

The genre: small talk.

The responses, more small talk, are typical. It's hard to be inappropriate when people are so open that they treat all topics like casual conversation.

When referring to others, people use others' first names or their nicknames. Nobody says Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. People you don't know the names of would be referred to as something like, "Jeannie's daughter's boyfriend's kid," and people will know who you mean. The response would typically be, "Oh no ****, is that right? Huh!" It's nice how in my community, people aren't diminutive unless they're being completely honest. "The lady with the beard" isn't an insult, it's a description that people recognize.

A girl can be any age. A kid is anyone younger than yourself. To girls, a guy is a peer that you don't really know or respect. To a guy, a guy is a bud, or a guy. "Dude" does not exist.

Hard-working, honest men and women are respected the most. People with a ton of money, who don't help others, are usually somewhat rejected. Young kids are respected until they disrespect their elders. Hard-working teenagers are respected, whereas spoiled teenagers are the absolute worst. People will talk down to people who try to act like they should be from a better place... don't forget, everyone knows your secrets, so trying to be someone else isn't going to fly.

Overall, my community values hard work and honesty. The more you can live up to these things, the more people will say to you, and the more respect you will have.

I took the photo myself, I don't know how to cite it.

Songs About "Self"

I chose the song "Mix Tape" by Brand New. It's a song about a girl who can be anything but herself, and the guy is telling her to grow up and be herself.



Lacey, Jesse. "Mix Tape." Your Favorite Weapon. All Night Chemist. 2002.

The Brain Lecture

From the lecture, I learned that different parts of the brain control different bodily functions and that damaging parts of the brain affects the function it controls. I didn't really get what this had to do with "self" since it was entirely tangible, and though the people in the classroom video had brain damage, they were still the same people. Not being able to recognize what something is used for is a physical damage and does not change the person's individual characteristics.

Chart of Virtues/Reflection on "Self" Articles

The two articles each talked about developing one's "self," but they discussed different aspects of discovering and maintaining one's "self." Juhan's article talked about cleansing and maintaining one's "self" by reaping the benefits from our memories. He suggests that we should learn from our past mistakes.

Franklin's article talked about finding faults within ourselves and striving to eliminate them. I feel that a combination of the two methods might be successful, temporarily. I do not think that the "self" can be changed easily.

The following are my Virtues Chart and my Body Pains Chart.

Elie Wiesel's Self Presentation

At the beginning of Elie Wiesel's Night, Wiesel presents himself as a sheltered young man, studying Jewish documentation with a wise mentor. He talks about how secluded his community is from the wrodl, and how real information about the concentration camps was never passed on to him until his mentor came back from a botched extermination. At that point, he realized that there was much more to the world and human capacity for cruelty than what he might find in his community.

At the end of the novel, Wiesel presents himself as a young man aged far beyong his actual years. He recalls, "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me" (115). Wiesel suggests that half of his life was lost to the concentration camps, and that nothing can be the same as it was.

Prof. Denis' Lecture Addressing the Holocaust

From Professer Denis' lecture addressing the Holocaust, I learned that the Nazi targets included people other than Jews and gypsies. They included homosexuals, cripples, the mentally ill, powerful political figures and lawyers, and basically anyone who was not Arian. I always think that's strange considering Hitler had brown hair and brown eyes, and Arians are supposed to have blonde hair and blue eyes.

I was surprised by the amount of art that liberators found throughout the camps. I would have guessed that all of the artwork would have been destroyed by SS Officers. I was more suprised to learn that some SS Officers buried the art outside of the camp for the prisoners, and that they would barter pictures for food. The peoples' desperation hit home when Prof. Denis talked about the death penalty that came with anti-Holocaust artwork, yet so many people took that risk for the sake of telling the world what really happened.

What I found to be the most interesting point of Prof. Denis' lecture was how many camps there really were. I had only heard of a few, less than ten, so I was very surprised to learn that there were approximately 15,000 camps in all, and that all of the death camps were in Poland.

Listening to Prof. Denis speak about the holocaust put into perspective for me the agony that holocaust victims had to endure. All of the photos and art work of cramped barracks, watery broth in giant barrels, victims stacked in mass graves, and the lack of shame that the SS Officers showed when they killed victims made me realize that I could never even begin to imagine what tese people endured, and that made me thankful that I get to live in this generation.

Jan Kather's Lecture

From Jan Kather's lecture, I learned that the images throughout The Book of Job are very symbolic, and are more than aesthetics. The symbolism in the pictures contribute to the words in the text by applying a visual to the key points of the story. I was surprised to learn that William Blake did the original etching and painting by hand, yet he believed he could have visons of angels. The visions, however, were what I found to be most interesting. After all, not everyone could (or would) admit to that. The lecture changed my relationship to the "Book of Job" by prompting me to look at the picture on the cover of the novel and to think about the symbols as I came across them in the text.